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Traditional simulation research of geological and similar engineering models, such as landslides or other natural disaster scenarios, usually focuses on the change of stress and the state of the model before and after destruction. However, the transition of the inner change is usually invisible. To optimize and make models more intelligent, this paper aims to propose a perceptible design to detect the internal temperature change transformed by other energy versions like stress or torsion.

In this paper, micron diamond particles were embedded in 3D printed geopolymers as a potential thermal sensor material to detect the inner heat change. The authors use synthetic micron diamond powder to reinforced the anti-corrosion properties and thermal conductivity of geopolymer and apply this novel geopolymer slurry in the direct ink writing (DIW) technique.

As a result, the addition of micron diamond powder can greatly influence the rheology of geopolymer slurry and make the geopolymer slurry extrudable and suitable for DIW by reducing the slope of the viscosity of this inorganic colloid. The heat transfer coefficient of the micron diamond (15 Wt.%)/geopolymer was 50% higher than the pure geopolymer, which could be detected by the infrared thermal imager. Besides, the addition of diamond particles also increased the porous rates of geopolymer.

In conclusion, DIW slurry deposition of micron diamond-embedded geopolymer (MDG) composites could be used to manufacture the multi-functional geological model for thermal imaging and defect detection, which need the characteristic of lightweight, isolation, heat transfer and wave absorption.

This paper aims to analyse the findings of the relevant studies, to summarise what has been done in this area, to direct future research and to improve private finance initiative (PFI) practice. PFI is a new form of contracting out public facilities to the private sector, where facility management was integrated with construction. There have been a large number of academic papers published on this subject; however, there is a lack of a systematic review of the PFI-related studies.

The literature search focused on international peer-reviewed and published literature, with relevance to PFI. The search of literature, following the method of Tang et al. (2010) and Al-Sharif and Kaka (2004), involved the titles, keywords and abstracts, from some major electronic databases (Web of Science, Engineering Village, Science Direct (Elsevier) and Springer Link) of publications published between 1992 and 2011. The data were classified into six categories for further analysis.

As a new way to procure public facility management, PFI projects have unique characteristics in comparison to conventional construction procurement. The review of the literature regarding PFI is important in terms of summarising the key findings and suggestions of studies for industry practitioners, as well as forecasting the future academic research trends in this area. The number of research works on PFI increased quickly in recent years; however, the review discovered there were still some issues not yet covered in the literature.

This review is not exhaustive in nature, as the criteria in selecting research papers only included English-written, peer-reviewed journals from some major electronic literature databases. This is the limitation of the research. Further review on a wider range of literature is recommended for researchers.

Since PFI was introduced to the construction industry to fund infrastructure 20 years ago in the UK, it has gained interests from scholars. In this new form of contracting out public facilities to the private sector, facility management was integrated with construction. There have been a large number of academic papers published on this subject; however, there is a lack of a systematic review of the PFI studies.

The research aims to analyze the effects of financial policies on a cash flow system to meet project performance goals and improve profitability. The policies are divided into four groups; owner related, bank-related, labor-related and supplier-related policies. This research presents a developed model for planning, forecasting and managing the cash flow in construction projects using system dynamics (SD).

A System Dynamics (SD model is developed to evaluate the effect of different financial policies on construction project performance. By identifying the feedback loops in the cash flow system, a dynamic model is developed to forecast, plan and manage different policies, including prepayment, overbilling, loans, incentive payment, delay in payment and equipment lease.

A case study (a construction activity as part of a pharmaceutical factory development project) is used to analyze the cash flow and financing policies. The findings demonstrate the effects of different policies such as incentive payments on project cash flow estimation, which proved to reduce the project duration, improve the profit and increase the financing during the project execution.

The presented model would be a major attempt to estimate precisely the cash flow and the effect of employing different financial policies on project performance. Applying this model, project managers and decision-makers have the opportunity to model different financial policies concerning a variety of limiting variables applicable to each situation. Ultimately, with this, one can make more reasoned decisions and, in effect, optimize the utility of the project.

The model and existing practice of the construction supply chain (CSC) in the United Kingdom (UK) and Australia was presented in this chapter. The policies and reports that support the practice of the CSC were examined in both countries. It was discovered from the review of literature that the UK has a more detailed report targeted at improving the CSC than Australia. However, both countries have a common factor affecting their CSC which originates from fragmentation experienced within their supply chain. Construction stakeholders in the UK and Australia believe that collaboration and integration are vital components for improving performance. The majority of the contractors in both countries embrace collaborative working for the sole purpose of risk sharing, access to innovation and response to market efficiency. However, most of the models developed for managing the CSC in the UK are built around building information modelling (BIM). Also, the reviewed studies show that supply chain management practice will be effective following the following principle: shared objectives, trust, reduction in a blame culture, joint working, enhanced communication and information-sharing. Finally, the UK has a more established framework and more CSC models compared to Australia.

The purpose of this research is to rank the most significant factors of organizational structure that can reduce time and cost overruns (nonphysical waste) in road projects of the developing countries. Additionally, the effect of factors of organizational structure on nonphysical waste in road projects is also measured.

Factors of organizational structure causing time and cost overrun are extracted through a content analysis of the published literature. Moreover, a questionnaire survey is carried out involving 128 professionals to assess the effect of organizational structure factors on time and cost overrun. Finally, to obtain a more objective evaluation, relative importance index and regression analysis techniques are utilized, and the most severe factors influencing time and cost overrun are indicated.

This study found out that top management support and procurement procedures are the most significant factors influencing time and cost overruns in road projects of the developing countries.

A small number of studies have been conducted to investigate the effect of factors of organizational structure on time and cost overrun in the construction industry. And even more, its relation with respect to road projects of the developing countries is limited. This research highlights the effect of most significant factors of organizational structure that influence the nonphysical waste in road projects of the developing countries. Therefore, this study adds to the body of knowledge by recommending that all the stakeholders of construction project should pay close attention toward these factors to control the enigma of time and cost overrun. It might also prove helpful, if implemented to its full extent, in all the road construction activities undertaken.

Knowledge of the effect of various cash-flow factors on expected project profit is important to effectively manage productivity on construction projects. This study was conducted to develop and test the sensitivity of a Machine Learning Support Vector Regression Algorithm (SVRA) to predict construction project profit in Ghana.

The study relied on data from 150 institutional projects executed within the past five years (2014–2018) in developing the model. Eighty percent (80%) of the data from the 150 projects was used at hyperparameter selection and final training phases of the model development and the remaining 20% for model testing. Using MATLAB for Support Vector Regression, the parameters available for tuning were the epsilon values, the kernel scale, the box constraint and standardisations. The sensitivity index was computed to determine the degree to which the independent variables impact the dependent variable.

The developed model's predictions perfectly fitted the data and explained all the variability of the response data around its mean. Average predictive accuracy of 73.66% was achieved with all the variables on the different projects in validation. The developed SVR model was sensitive to labour and loan.

The developed SVRA combines variation, defective works and labour with other financial constraints, which have been the variables used in previous studies. It will aid contractors in predicting profit on completion at commencement and also provide information on the effect of changes to cash-flow factors on profit.

The aims of this study are to conduct a systematic review of public–private partnership (PPP) studies published from 2009 to 2019, to compare the results with Ke et al. (2009) who reviewed the PPP literature published from 1998 to 2008, and to trace the evolution of the PPP knowledge in the past two decades. This study also presents the possible directions that the PPP research may go towards in the future, arguably.

This study carried out a top journal-based search to identify the quality PPP articles published from 2009 to 2019. A total of 12 top-tier construction journals were systematically searched in the database of web of science (WOS), from which 279 PPP articles were identified for review.

The number of the identified articles, the titles of the journals, institutions, the most cited papers, and prevalent research methods were analyzed and compared. The existing PPP studies in construction journals were classified into seven streams. Through analysis of the PPP research status and gaps, five future research directions were revealed.

This study contributes to the current body of knowledge by revealing the research trend of PPP from 2009 to 2019. It presents the change of PPP development trend in the past decade through comparison with Ke et al. (2009). It also reveals the major research streams and points out the directions that the PPP research may go towards in the future. Moreover, this study is helpful to the practice as well. It can enhance the practitioners' understanding of the PPP development in the past decade. In addition, it identified the research institutions contributing the most in the area of PPP, which may serve as valuable reference for practitioners to locate the best institutions for consultancy or collaboration.

The future construction site will be pervasive, context aware and embedded with intelligence. The purpose of this paper is to explore and define the concept of the digital skin of the future smart construction site.

The paper provides a systematic and hierarchical classification of 114 articles from both industry and academia on the digital skin concept and evaluates them. The hierarchical classification is based on application areas relevant to construction, such as augmented reality, building information model-based visualisation, labour tracking, supply chain tracking, safety management, mobile equipment tracking and schedule and progress monitoring. Evaluations of the research papers were conducted based on three pillars: validation of technological feasibility, onsite application and user acceptance testing.

Technologies learned about in the literature review enabled the envisaging of the pervasive construction site of the future. The paper presents scenarios for the future context-aware construction site, including the construction worker, construction procurement management and future real-time safety management systems.

Based on the gaps identified by the review in the body of knowledge and on a broader analysis of technology diffusion, the paper highlights the research challenges to be overcome in the advent of digital skin. The paper recommends that researchers follow a coherent process for smart technology design, development and implementation in order to achieve this vision for the construction industry.

Construction companies require meticulous and thorough financial planning to ensure business survival in an increasingly competitive global market. Past studies assert that cash flow management is also crucial to meeting project and organisational performance expectations. However, the link between an advance payment system (APS), cash flow and project performance has hitherto received scant academic attention. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the attributes and impact of APS on cash flow, project and organisational performance. This study surveyed all registered contractors listed in Grades 1–9 on the Construction Industry Development Board Register of Contractors in South Africa.

This study adopted an empirical epistemological design and deductive reasoning to analyse primary data collated via a questionnaire data collection instrument. Summary statistical and regression analysis were used to explore data garnered.

This study found that key significant attributes of APS in South Africa were payment of balance to the contractor upon project delivery; advance payment to contractors before the commencement of the work; and payment to contractors as agreed. This study proffers that project performance in terms of cost, time and quality performance is highly and positively supported by APS. Moreover, APS positively supports the efficiency, competitiveness and profitability of construction organisations. Cumulatively, these findings confirm that APS attributes in South Africa conforms to the global attributes of APS. The research concludes that client use of APS on projects improves the likelihood of attaining improved quality and time performance. This paper concludes with a recommendation that both public and private clients consider the option of an APS as the ideal payment system to support project and organisational performance.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this work constitutes the first attempt to explore the linkages between an APS, cash flow and project performance in South Africa and seeks to engender wider polemic debate and further discussion among industry stakeholders.

Delayed payments have been long standing, pressing issue in construction projects, especially in Government-funded construction projects. The root causes and the consequences of delayed payments must be identified before implementing strategies to mitigate the consequences of such delayed payments. However, these causes and consequences and the parties responsible for managing the delayed payments have not been identified so far. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to investigate the management of payment delays in Government-funded construction projects.

The study used a mixed approach comprising four case studies and a questionnaire survey. The empirical data collected from the case studies and the questionnaire survey were analysed using manual content analysis and mean rating, respectively.

The study identified the most significant causes and the most significant consequences of delayed payments that occur in Government-funded construction projects. It also revealed the strategies that clients, consultants, contractors and other parties can adopt to mitigate the adverse consequences of such delayed payments.

This study identified the most significant causes of delayed payments in Government-funded construction projects, the most significant consequences of such delayed payments and the most suitable strategies the clients, consultants and contractors can adopt to mitigate the consequences of such delayed payments. Thus, this study supports streamlining the management of payment delays in Government construction projects and identifies the roles that different parties must play in managing payment delays in Government building projects, which is an under-researched area.